Bricks & mortar vs. clicks & mobile

It’s been a rough couple of years for retail giants. Even as the economy booms, Sears Canada and other large chains are going bust.

The culprit? There are several, but the biggest one by far is the continued growth of online shopping.

“Ecommerce” – as economists often call it – has been up significantly in Canada this year, and new polling data from the Angus Reid Institute suggests that most Canadians expect this trend to continue.

Two-in-three Canadians (65%) say they expect to do a greater proportion of their shopping online in the next year or two, and one-in-five (19%) expect to soon be making the majority of their non-food purchases on the internet – if they aren’t already.

That said, three-in-four Canadians (74%) say they still prefer to shop in brick-and-mortar stores if given the choice, a preference that extends to every product category canvassed except entertainment media.

More Key Findings:

Roughly half of all Canadians (48%) report making purchases online at least once per month, including one-in-ten (11%) who do so once a week or more. The rest buy online less often (46%) or not at all (7%)

Age is a significant driver of online shopping behaviour. Younger respondents are more likely than other age groups to shop online and more likely to express a preference for web-based stores over physical ones